The Forgotten One
by IHateDumbledore24
Summary: "Cassiopeia always knew she was different from the rest of her 'family'." Follow Cassiopeia's struggle through life, angry at her parents and her gainig freedom. AU
1. Chapter 1

Cassiopeia always knew she was different from the rest of her 'family' - apart from the fact that she was mute. She wasn't even sure now whether she could call her parents and brother, family. She'd been ignored ever since Harry had been born - a few minutes after her. Cassiopeia had been dumped back into her cot by her godfather, Lupin, who preferred to fawn over Sirius' godson, Harry. _He_ didn't need more attention with Lily and James already cooing over their son, completely forgetting their other child. If one were to look at the scene, they would see a baby girl in her cot alone staring at a boy in his mother's arms with the father and friends smiling and laughing around the pair. One wouldn't even think about the girl being part of that group or being related to them.

That girl, grew up with a house-elf raising her, Lily being _too busy_ with Harry to raise Cassiopeia, her daughter. James, however, took pleasure in punishing Cassiopeia for silly things like her not clearing the table after meals even though she was only three years old. James' favourite punishment was to lock Cassiopeia in a cupboard which he knew had a Boggart inside. However, James wouldn't say no to beating up his favourite punchbag, Cassiopeia. Lily never did anything to hurt her daughter but just stood and watched Cassiopeia being punished. In the cupboard, Cassiopeia faced her worst fear which was Lily telling her she never loved her and throwing her out.

Cassiopeia's worst fear came true on the night before her 6th birthday - not that Cassiopeia actually classified it as her birthday. It was more Harry's birthday than hers even though they were twins. Anyway, the night before _Harry's_ 6th birthday, Cassiopeia was just about to go to bed when she heard James, Lily and ALBUS DUMBLEDORE talking about her. She was so excited about the great Albus Dumbledore talking about her that she crept downstairs and leaned against the kitchen door. She was kind of expecting Lily and James to be telling Albus Dumbledore about her control over magic but she heard quite the opposite.

"What should we do with the brat?"

"Send the girl away to my sister, Petunia. She'll stamp out the brat's rubbish."

James agreed to the plan and said, "I'll go fetch the brat."

At that, Cassiopeia felt tears forming at Lily basically throwing her away like yesterday's rubbish. The kitchen door was thrown open and James leered at her.

"Well, well, well. Look who I found snooping around us!"

Dragging her to the kitchen, he told the other adults about her eavesdropping. Cassiopeia shivered at the thought of her punishment but luckily for her, Dumbledore seemed to be in a hurry or desperate to get rid of her and grabbed her arm. They apparated to a street of such uniformity and sameness that Cassiopeia felt bile rising up her throat. Dumbledore pushed her roughly towards number four and rang the doorbell impatiently.

The door was opened by a fat, beefy man without a neck. He was so surprised by Dumbledore's dress attire, he let him and Cassiopeia through, staring after them in shock. The house was so clean, it looked scrubbed of life and happiness. Dumbledore strode to the living where he and the girl were greeted with the sight of a lump of fat - Dudley - watching TV with his piggish eyes. When he saw Dumbledore, he squeaked in fright and waddled to the kitchen where he hid behind his horse-faced mother. Dumbledore smiled serenely and motioned for the Dursleys to sit down. The fat lump, horse-faced woman and beefy man sat together, squashed on a sofa, watching Dumbledore warily, not noting the small girl next to him on the sofa.

"This is your niece. Keep her." announced Dumbledore and with that, he swept off and disappeared, leaving Cassiopeia with the Dursleys. When he recovered form his scare, Vernon grabbed Cassiopeia and snarled.

"I don't care about you, freak. I am just tolerating you because we don't want _their kind_ coming here again."

He grabbed Cassiopeia's hair and dragged her to her new living space for the next few years of her miserable life. He locked the cupboard under the stairs and thumped off. Cassiopeia crumpled onto the ground and cried.

The life of Cassiopeia Potter at the Dursley household had just begun...


	2. Chapter 2

"Up! Up!" screeched Petunia.

Cassiopeia woke up with a start, banging her head on the stairs above her. Sighing, she shook out some spiders from her socks, wishing she could have a proper bedroom and not have to be cramped in a small cupboard under the stairs. Cassiopeia was sure there was space for her in the Dursley household but of course, a 'freak' like her doesn't deserve a proper bedroom as Vernon had been telling her ever since she'd arrived.

It had been three years, one month, 3 days and four hours since Dumbledore and the Potters had dumped her at the Dursleys. The years there hadn't been pleasurable: Vernon pushing her around, Petunia giving her endless chores impossible to complete and Dudley bullying her. Honestly, one would have thought the Dursleys would have grown tired of this but they LOVED it and would do anything to make her life more was rudely pulled out of her musings by Petunia banging on the cupboard door.

"Hurry up! I want everything to be perfect for my Dudders' birthday!" she yelled.

Cassiopeia mentally groaned. How could she have forgotten Dudley's birthday?! The 'most important day of the year'! /Petunia unlocked the door and wrenched it open. She pulled Cassiopeia out by her hair and dragged her to the kitchen. She grabbed a frying pan and hit Cassiopeia with it.

"That's for not being fast enough. Get on with the breakfast! Come on!"

The said girl winced in pain but continued preparing breakfast as if nothing had happened. It was a good thing she was unable to talk or she would have let out quite a few insults by now. Cassiopeia knew sign language from books - at school, no one knew she existed or if they did, they didn't acknowledge it - but she didn't' really need it around the Dursleys because she never had a say in heard thuds down the stairs. "Must be Dudley."she thought. Silence. The thuds stopped abruptly. Cassiopeia suddenly found herself on the floor, Dudley leaning over her with a hot frying pan lifted above his head. She tried to move out of the line of trajectory but Dudley had her firmly pinned to the floor. She closed her eyes and waited for the pain. After an excruciating ten seconds, Cassiopeia felt a tingly sensation on her cheek which quickly became an agonising pain. She opened her eyes and saw no pulled herself up painfully slowly, holding onto the kitchen counter for dear life. Once she had staggered back into a standing position, she got back to making breakfast. Unknowingly, she used magic to help speeds thing up. If she hadn't used magic, well, let's just saw there would have been undesirable consequences.

Cassiopeia had just finished layering the table with food when the Dursley family came in: Vernon stomping, Petunia stalking and Dudley stumbling - because of his weight. She curled her nose in disgust as she saw Vernon and Dudley gobbling down their food as if their food was going to run away. Honestly, she wouldn't have been able to eat a quarter of what Dudley was eating. Cassiopeia stood respectively in a corner, silently waiting for her next order. After five minutes of sounds of chomping and spitting, Vernon, after gulping down at least five rashers of bacon, grunted: "Go to you room."

The said girl snorted mentally, "Who is dumb enough to call a cupboard a room!? Oh, wait, Vernon doesn't even count as dumb. There isn't an adjective to describe how stupid he is and how small his brain was. I'm not even sure if he has a brain."

She trudged to her 'room' and sat down on her pile of tatty blankets - her mattress - meditating. She was trying to clear her mind like she had done a few weeks beforehand. She had been locked in her cupboard while the Dursleys were out at Marge's house. Cassiopeia had felt peace for once in her life and had seen a dark house in the distant edge of her mind. This obviously aroused her curiosity and she decided that today, she was going to visit that house.

After retreating to her mind, Cassiopeia walked towards the house. As she walked through the gates, a shiver ran down her spine. She felt at home.

Cassiopeia wandered through the moonlit corridors, coming to a stop at a reinforced metal door. Intrigued, she placed her hand on the door. It shimmered at her touch for a second and swung open. Cassiopeia gasped at the sheer amount of books. She always had a passion for learning but since the Dursleys were so small minded, there weren't any books in the house which forced her to try and go to the library. That idea failed because as she'd been sneaking out at night, Dudley was having a midnight snack and had seen her. Of course, he screamed for his parents who came thundering down and Cassiopeia had been punished. She never tried to go to the library again.

Picking up a book, Cassiopeia saw a memory of her sleeping in her cupboard. Perplexed, she delved into the depths of the library, occasionally picking up a book and seeing unimportant memories like her making breakfast or hiding in a tree at school. As she wandered, the library became colder and more dusty and she came across a grubby book securely chained by a padlock. Naturally, she opened it.

As soon as she saw the memory, she wished she had never opened the book, cursing her curiosity. It was the memory of Lily, James and Dumbledore plotting to get rid of her and Lily saying that she never loved her freak of a daughter. Cassiopeia stumbled back, falling onto the floor, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Slowly but steadily, her breath evened and she lay down on the floor, her eyelids drooping closed.


End file.
